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Matthäus-Passion

Johann Sebastian Bach 

A monumental work both in its form and duration, the Matthäus-Passion is the apogee of the Cantor of Leipzig’s choral work.

Photo de Enrico Onofri © Chico de Luigi
Enrico Onofri © Chico de Luigi

Werner Güra | tenor (Evangelist)
Louis Morvan | bass (Jesus) 
Julie Roset | soprano
Giuseppina Bridelli | alto
Fabien Hyon | tenor
Thomas Dolié | baritone

Enrico Onofri | direction
Orchestre National d’Auvergne
Chœur NFM-Wroclaw | direction Lionel Sow 

In early eighteenth-century Germany, a widespread custom developed of performing a major choral work on Good Friday based on the Passion of Christ. During the few years separating the St John Passion (1723-24) from the St Matthew Passion (1727), Bach continued to develop his musical experience and added a number of innovations to his second great Passion. He created a fuller sound by introducing a third chorus and enhanced the variety of the recitative. This masterpiece by Bach brings the very long list of Passions in the history of music to a close. With a few exceptions, those which followed were no longer Passions in the liturgical sense as Bach understood it, but would blaze the trail for the oratorio form.

Production Les Grandes Voix